


Across Worlds

by kerithwyn



Series: Quantum Entanglements [18]
Category: Fringe
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-20
Updated: 2012-06-20
Packaged: 2017-11-08 04:55:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/439371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kerithwyn/pseuds/kerithwyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The strange case of Peter Bishop; catching up with the Lees.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Across Worlds

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers: "Novation" and "And Those We've Left Behind" for Olivia, through “Wallflower” for Blue!Lincoln.
> 
> Quantum Entanglements series. Quick reminder (because I had to make a chart to keep this all straight myself): QE was started in the gap between season 3 and 4, when Peter was gone but we didn’t know the extent of the timeline changes. So Olivia still went over with the Cortexikids and was replaced by Liv, and Colonel Broyles and David Robert Jones died as per (original) canon.
> 
> Thanks to samjohnsson for beta.

**Over Here**

So here he is, the latest Fringe event encompassed in one person: Peter Bishop.

He really is Walter's son, at least according to the DNA test results. It's not absolute verification but it's the best they have, backed up with Peter's seemingly uncanny knowledge of all their operations and cases. He claims to be a member of the team, somehow erased by a timeline that changed around him. The fact that his information is slightly off in parts actually helps make his case; a too-perfect account would have had them suspecting him as one of the new shapeshifters, with a mechanically accurate memory.

But he's tremendously helpful in tracking those new shifters, despite Broyles' suspicions and Peter's clearly maverick mode of operation. Lee becomes his unexpected advocate, perhaps because Peter doesn't seem to have as much unnervingly specific knowledge about him, or at least none that he's chosen to reveal. Olivia's perfectly willing to cede the duty of dealing with the younger Mr. Bishop to her new partner, given the fact that Peter--

\--he gives her the _creeps,_ frankly. It's the looks he keeps giving her, but even more than that, it's the hope that flares in his eyes every time he sees her, only to watch it fade as she fails to respond to him in whatever manner he's expecting. It's becoming increasingly clear what he thinks that manner should be, and Olivia has absolutely no answer to that other than to keep her distance.

Lee doesn't have any such problem with Peter, but the reappearance of the shapeshifter who killed Lee's partner clearly troubles him in a way that Olivia remembers from all her searching to discover who'd been responsible for John's death. She tries to reach out to him, and isn't offended when Lee declines her offer of company; she hadn't wanted to dilute her heartache by sharing it, either. 

Walter steadfastly refuses to meet with Peter again, after that first disastrous meeting, but Peter proves willing to help with the investigations regardless. Nothing else to do, he tells Olivia bleakly when she comes to check him out of the holding cell, but his demeanor improves once they're on the trail of the latest time anomalies. The breach-detection equipment on loan from the other universe confirms that it's not a soft-spot event, at least. Despite Walter's passive-aggressive assessment to the contrary, Peter is convinced that he's the cause of the anomalies, or at least that his appearance in this universe has something to do with them. He's even willing to put his life on the line once they identify the Greens' house as the epicenter of the events. Given the successful resolution of that case, Broyles unbends enough to offer Peter better accommodations. Peter himself seems less agitated in the wake of the case, apparently having come to the realization that he wasn't in his own universe, after all.

Olivia understands, now. Peter Bishop loves an Olivia Dunham from a different universe, and that doesn't have anything to do with her. The same way that Liv loves Frank Stanton and Olivia hasn't had the slightest impulse to find Frank's alternate in this world. It's sad and she can feel sorry for Peter, now that she realizes his feelings aren't about her at all. "I hope that you get back to her," she tells him, and she honestly means it, for both his sake and that of her alternate self.

As for why Peter appeared in her dreams--some kind of Cortexiphan resonance, maybe, her ill-defined abilities making her sensitive to world-shifting events.

Olivia wants nothing more than to tell Lincoln about it, share her revelation and her relief, but they've all agreed not to use the portal between worlds more than is absolutely necessary. Even so, she remembers the fear she'd felt at Peter's appearance and almost laughs, for its dissolution. With a light heart, she decides to open up to her new partner. Lee really does deserve to know, and if being honest with him about her relationship with his alternate encourages him trust her, so much the better. 

She chooses a moment in the lab, when Astrid and Walter are otherwise occupied. "Listen, you should know. Your alternate and I. We're...involved." It's the best word she has.

Lee goes very still, obviously processing. "I see." It's a delaying tactic as he thinks it over. Olivia lets him, reading through files while she waits. Eventually he shifts to get her attention and says, "I apologize in advance if this is inappropriate...but is that wise?"

Somehow, she's not surprised he's gotten to the crux of it that fast. Her respect for him increases again, for daring to ask the question she's barely considered herself. "I-- no. Probably not. But...."

Lee's gaze softens behind the glasses. "I understand. I think. Sometimes you can't help--"

"Yeah." There's a limit to how much she's willing to talk about it, though. "Anyway. You needed to know, because you're going to meet him sooner or later." 

"That...should be interesting." Lee's voice is full of questions he's not asking and Olivia's very, very grateful for his restraint. "Thank you for telling me, though."

She smiles at him, feeling that sense of connection again even more strongly. It’s good to have a partner again, someone she can rely on to watch her back. It’s strange and wonderful, how the same man in two different universes has given her what she’s been missing: a steadfast and trustworthy partner in one world, a lover to remind her that there’s more to life than work in the other.

Olivia watches Lee sneak glances at Astrid during the day, manages to bite back any number of comments, and can’t help but smile behind their backs as they leave the lab together, negotiating over where to eat.

Her own apartment will feel emptier than usual, she knows, with the memory of Lincoln lingering there still. She’ll think of him and know that somewhere, on the other side of the portal between worlds, he’ll be thinking of her.

They’re both too aware of the distance between them, too mindful of the fact that only a thin bubble of a room connects their two universes. There’s no solution Olivia can see, and Lincoln knows it too. They way they clung to each other the last time they met spoke louder than any declaration. But neither of them was willing to say good-bye, and it’s possible--likely, even--that with the open shapeshifter case and the ongoing concerns about both worlds’ stability, they’ll have the chance to meet again soon.

For right now, that’s enough.

***

**Over There**

It’s Charlie, of course, who calls him out.

Lincoln’s fairly well settled into his new position, but Colonel Broyles’ desk still feels too large for him in any number of ways. He wants to bolt for the van every time a call comes in, and resents like hell seeing Liv and Charlie go out on calls without him. He hasn’t ceded that privilege entirely yet, but the longer he’s in this position the more demands are made on his time, from administrative matters to requests for consultations from other Fringe teams. It’s a mystery to him how Broyles managed it all, and Lincoln has begun to inspect his hairline daily for impending signs of stress-induced follicle loss.

All work-induced anxiety aside, Lincoln knows he’s in for it when Charlie comes into the office and closes the door behind him.

He’s amazed Charlie’s held off this long, after he saw Lincoln go off on impromptu vacation with Olivia, never mind the unscheduled leave Lincoln took when Olivia crossed back over to give him the “Peter Bishop” file. Lincoln had carefully kept that file off the Secretary’s radar; there was enough tension between the worlds without adding a doppelganger of Bishop’s lost son into the mix, at least until they have more information about who he really is.

Charlie goes on for awhile about the current cases and status updates--nothing Lincoln couldn’t have called up on his own--before he stops and squints at Lincoln with a familiar concerned look. "But never mind all that, are you okay?" He hesitates, flails his hands a little. "I don't want to sound like a dork, but...."

"You are a dork," Lincoln says, all fondness. "But yes." 

Charlie smiles and Lincoln remembers the way Charlie had kissed him, after their last time in the broom closet. There'd been a lot packed into that kiss: gratitude, affection, reluctant farewell.

"Well, good then." Charlie nods at him and Lincoln is shocked, actually shocked, that he got away with it.

\--because he's not okay, not at all. He wants to be, wants to think about Olivia like he does most of his past lovers, fondly but without sentimentality. 

But she's _Olivia Dunham_ and he was in love with her before they ever met, so what chance did he ever have?

There's a lot of transference going on, he's smart enough to know that. But not smart enough to avoid it, apparently. All the things he loves about his world's Olivia are hers too.

She doesn't need anyone to take care of her. She clearly needs someone so much. He wants to--cook for her, make her laugh, take some of the burdens she carries off her shoulders. 

It's harder to make Olivia laugh. That's a challenge he likes. Her sense of humor is quieter, more pointed, a little more macabre than Liv’s. Ironic, given the circumstances of their lives, but then again Olivia’s life had been a horror show--experimented on as a kid, for fuck’s sake, and the people on the other side thought Secretary Bishop was the monster of the two alternates. As far as Lincoln was concerned, they both were.

Everything would be so much easier if the rest of them really were monsters, like the Secretary first told them. But a woman on the other side of the dimensional bridge is wearing a mirror of his tattoo on her back, and Lincoln spends every moment that isn’t purely devoted to the business of his own world’s safety thinking about her.

He knows how hopeless it is between them, there’s no fooling himself on that score. But he wouldn’t have given up knowing her for anything.

“...Charlie,” he says, just as his friend’s hand is on the door. “Maybe not so okay.”

Charlie looks back and him and nods, no surprise at all in his dark eyes. “Want me to come over after work? Mona’s got book club or some other thing, we can talk.”

Lincoln nods, grateful, and both of them know that while talking is possible, it’s nothing more than an excuse for Lincoln to cry on Charlie’s shoulder. Not the first time, won’t be the last, and Charlie never holds it against him. The same way Lincoln would never exploit the memories of the few times Charlie’s had to lean on him.

A few days later Liv calls him up, her voice trembling over the line, and it’s Lincoln’s turn to be the strong shoulder as Liv tells him that Frank’s moving all his stuff out of her place, and that she’s given back his ring.

Charlie comes over again too, and it’s almost like old times except without the sex and a lot more heartache all around. Charlie mutters that Mona isn’t thrilled that he keeps running out whenever they call, but the look in his eye tells them not to push the issue, so they don’t.

No matter what happens, they’ve always got each other to depend on. Even given all the uncertainties of his world, Lincoln knows that will never change.

***

**Over Here**

The waitress at the all-night diner already knows Lincoln’s name and the way he likes his coffee, and that’s not necessarily a good sign; Angie only works the late shift and he’s been in often enough lately that she’s started to brew a fresh pot right before he arrives.

It’s not flirting. She says he reminds her of her son.

Most of the time he’s alone with his thoughts, but Olivia had stopped in once by coincidence when her own insomnia kept her up. They’d had an impromptu conversation about how he was adjusting (less well than he admitted to), and Olivia assured him that this would all just become his life, eventually. That could begin happening any second now.

Mostly it’s the change in location and the nature of their cases, rather than any dissatisfaction with his new co-workers. Lincoln still misses Robert--of course he’ll always miss Robert--but Olivia is kind, and Astrid is lovely, and Dr. Bishop is...complicated. So is his son, the open Fringe case named Peter Bishop.

Olivia has been cautious around Peter, uneasy, and it was easy to understand why. As Lincoln’s come to understand it, Peter is from yet another alternate universe--not the one on the other side of the bridge--where he’s in love with yet another Olivia. 

It’s no wonder Lincoln’s having a hard time sleeping, considering the realities he now has to assimilate into his worldview.

When he went to deliver the supplies Peter had requested, Peter had been surprised and grateful for the company. Peter was easy to talk to, and Lincoln found himself admitting to both his difficulty with all these new truths and to the fact that he’s never met anyone like Olivia before, impressed by the way she so easily accepts every bizarre new occurrence.

The way that Peter chuckles indicates that he’d misconstrued Lincoln’s meaning. It's true, he hasn't met anyone like Olivia Dunham, and he's honestly fascinated by her. But not in the way that Peter thinks, especially in the wake of Olivia's revelation about dating his alternate. That's Olivia's business to share, not his. She wouldn't appreciate Lincoln revealing that detail to this stranger, no matter how useful he's made himself to the division.

And even if Lincoln was inclined to date one of his coworkers--and he's not ready yet, won't be for awhile--Astrid's made it perfectly clear that she's both interested and willing to be patient. 

In another lifetime, he might even have pressed Peter for a real answer about those glasses. It’s entirely possible, Lincoln realizes with a start, that in another lifetime--another universe--he _did._ He can’t decide whether the thought is comforting or unsettling. Roads not taken, and all that.

In this reality, despite the insomnia, he’s starting to make a new life in Boston. He still talks to Julie and the kids and has plans to spend holidays with them. He'd bought Christmas presents for Jules and Amy and Jonathan months ago, and they're stacked up waiting in his closet. Robert's present is there too, but Lincoln thinks it'll be a long time before he'll be able to touch it. It'll be a nice donation to Goodwill at some point, he supposes. But not yet.

Still, he can sense a slow dawning distance in their conversations. He'll join them for the holidays, yes, and see the kids on their birthdays, but after that...Lincoln knows they'll be down to exchanging emails and cards on the holidays. "Uncle Lincoln" will become a distant memory and a twice-a-year mention, thank-you notes dutifully penned in childish hands because Jules is a stickler for politeness. One year he'll decide to stop torturing himself, and that'll be the end of it.

That slow inevitability keeps him up at night, another item on the list. Most of the time, Lincoln tries to keep his thoughts focused forward, toward the future and the possibilities of the new life he can build here. But he can’t move forward, not really, until he can find some closure on Robert’s case. 

He’s still not sure he trusts the people on the other side of the bridge. They sent the shapeshifters before, even if they were currently disavowing all knowledge of this “new” kind. He trusts Olivia’s intuition, and if she vouches for them, then he’s willing to believe her--while maintaining his own distance and reservations. One of them needs to keep an objective perspective, after all.

But as new as their partnership is, he knows he can depend on Olivia. Even given all the new uncertainties of his world, Lincoln knows that will never change.


End file.
